Libya opposes appointment of proposed new UN special envoy

The UN Security Council held a meeting yesterday on the situation in Libya. The issue of the difficult appointment of a new special envoy to Libya was widely discussed. The post has been vacant since the resignation of Slovakian Jan Kubis eight months ago.

The international community, strongly divided, cannot agree on a new envoy. This time, it is Libya that has officially announced its opposition to the nomination of Senegalese Abdoulaye Bathily.

For the first time, Tripoli is demanding that its opinion be taken into consideration when choosing the next envoy. Its representative at the UN, Taher al Sonni, called for “serious and deep” prior discussions with the Libyans before proceeding with the vote, in order to avoid a last-minute failure.

“We want the special envoy to be African, but we will be more selective, we are looking for a more competent personality who knows the file,” he said. Tripoli has clearly refused the candidacy of the Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily, proposed to the members of the Council by Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General.

The government of national unity led by Abdelhamid Dbeibah supports instead the candidacy of the Algerian Sabri Boukadoum, who was refused by several countries, including the United Arab Emirates and the USA.

Sabri Boukadoum knows the Libyan file well, and Dbeibah has been received twice in Algiers even though he has been isolated internationally since the end of his mandate last December and after having failed to organize elections.